I received the same score as my cold diagnostic as well: 160 . After 2 months of intensive studying and PTing between 168-171. But I realized like an idiot I had only done old practice tests in the prep test books. I hadnt even looked at anything after 2000. Soooo my bad. December retake!

Apparently, I can still get into UBC with my current score, it has the perfect dual degree with HKU that I want, and I wanted an excuse to move from the U.S. to Canada anyway. I hate tea parties and homophobes.

Hopefully, I'll do a lot better next time now that I can be more relaxed.

kingofspain wrote:I don't know if it was a "bomb" really, but I was PTing between 174 and 178 and ended up with a 170. I got a -7 on LG. I got an entire game wrong - read a rule wrong somewhere. I haven't done that poorly on a LG section since the very first games section I took. I feel a little weird retaking with a 170, but I'm already registered for December.

exactly what happened to me. wow. crazy. trying to decide whether to retake in dec. or feb. what do you think? i feel like a longer break will help me face the practice materials with a cleaner slate? don't need to apply this year, so i don't have that time pressure.

In my situation it's easier to retake in December. I graduated in May and am doing an internship that ends at the end of December - so after that I don't know where I'll be. I'm not in any hurry to apply to law school, but it's just easier to get it out of the way. Also, I'm just antsy after messing up the last test (and yeah, I recognize that's an awful reason to choose one date over another).

I also didn't study as much as a lot of people do - like a month of very lighthearted studying (really just getting to know the test basics), one week of moderate studying after I registered, and an intense week leading up to the test - so I should easily be able to more than double the amount of studying I did by December and (I hope) raise my score by 5-10(?) points.

It really depends on your situation, I think. Is there any reason you need to get it done? How much studying can you realistically expect to do in the next month, and how much more do you expect you'll need? Can you make a commitment to study up to the February test date? How desperate are you to get it over with?

Been studying all summer...was PTing between 164 and 171 (Highest score)...ended up with a 158...WTFFFF...I was shocked and destroyed...BUT I was really sick on test day. Had to get up in the middle of Reading Comp (my minus 0-2 section) to throw up...so I totally missed the last passage. Nerves got my on LG and I knew it. The only reason why I didnt cancel was because I wanted the ability to apply early If for some reason I did ok. I didnt...Signed up for december and have been prepping since scores came out.

Here's what I think about our collective situation...There are holes in all of our testing abilities...we have a month and ten (?) days to fix it. Who cares about a life right now...it's only a month, then we can party. Buckle down and chain yourself to a desk with PT's and books...figure the test out because it's learnable, and rock the shit out of December's test. Here's to destroying December guys

niederbomb wrote:Apparently, I can still get into UBC with my current score, it has the perfect dual degree with HKU that I want, and I wanted an excuse to move from the U.S. to Canada anyway. I hate tea parties and homophobes.

Hopefully, I'll do a lot better next time now that I can be more relaxed.

Canada is awesome - Vancouver especially. You won't regret UBC if you do end up there. Excellent school.

niederbomb wrote:Apparently, I can still get into UBC with my current score, it has the perfect dual degree with HKU that I want, and I wanted an excuse to move from the U.S. to Canada anyway. I hate tea parties and homophobes.

Hopefully, I'll do a lot better next time now that I can be more relaxed.

Nieder: Four schools you should apply to this week and the next: UBC, UVic, Dalhousie, New Brunswick.

With a 161-168 you have good shots at all of them.

Feel free to PM me, I have lots of info. I have applied to 8 schools up there, including three of the ones already mentioned.

I got a 163. I was PTing in the low 170s. Weird. I thought I did well! The last time I took the LSAT I got a 164. I am beginning to think that this test was harder than it seemed, judging by the huge number of people in my shoes!

nStiver wrote:I got a 163. I was PTing in the low 170s. Weird. I thought I did well! The last time I took the LSAT I got a 164. I am beginning to think that this test was harder than it seemed, judging by the huge number of people in my shoes!

yea I feel ya. if someone told me that curve was -12, I'd bet my life on 175+. After going over the question though, its apperent that the test was not harder, but we were dumber than we thought.

Spare me! I know someone who got 144 on the October test! Those of you who are complaining about your 160+ should put this in perspective! Oh yes, they worked like a dog studying full time for the test too.

taxguy wrote:Spare me! I know someone who got 144 on the October test! Those of you who are complaining about your 160+ should put this in perspective! Oh yes, they worked like a dog studying full time for the test too.

Ouch, thats a tough one. But for me, a 163 is one point lower than my last test, a 164 in feb. This was my last shot, 3rd lsat. It also sucks to have been PTing in the mid 170s and to get a 163. I am telling you, a lack of sleep is the most dangerous thing to happen to a LSAT taker. Everyone do yourself a favor, learn from my mistake. If you didn't sleep the night before, just postpone the test. Its not worth it.

nStiver wrote:I am telling you, a lack of sleep is the most dangerous thing to happen to a LSAT taker. Everyone do yourself a favor, learn from my mistake. If you didn't sleep the night before, just postpone the test. Its not worth it.

+1

Fire alarm went off at 2:00am in my apartment complex night before the exam, and stayed on for twenty minutes. Was PTing mid 160's. Test-day score? 153.

I didn't bomb it, but I did score below my average due to a serious fuckup on the LG section (-10, when the other three sections were a -10 combined). Focusing on games for the retake in December, tracking my studying here: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=135957

This is a good thread, I hope I don't seem rude in asking this, but can more of you give reasons for why you think you underperformed? What conditions were you prep-testing under?

Here are some no-no's of mine I am currently trying to get out of the habit of, let me know if any of you do these things are your own no-no's that you think weakened your performance.

-I will take the sections in segments because I like to study one thing on a certain day. Then I add up the scores once I've completed all of the sections of a particular test, even though I didn't take it all in one sitting.-I will take the test with my iPod on.-I will sometimes give myself an extra minute or two if I'm close to finishing instead of just guessing to fill in any remaining questions when time is almost up...-Not counting a misbubbled answer if the answer I meant to put was right.

Those are some examples. I know they're bad habits, but I'm just being honest, in that I will do all of those things, even though I know I shouldn't. I want to know if anyone here feels that there were things they did in their prepping that gave them unrealistically high hopes, or if it was some kind of fluke, got sick, hungover, what. Anyone willing to share personal experiences as to why they think they underperformed? We're all anonymous here, no harm.

I only scored one point below my avg, and I don't plan on retaking, but there is one thing I know I could have done better. And this isn't really a prep habit either, but a reason for under-performing. I breezed through the first 96 questions of the test, and then got to the last game with 13 minutes left (as in, time to spare). I made a nice diagram, then leisurely started attacking the questions only to notice that many of them were unsolvable. Instead of immediately going back to my diagram, I spent a good 7 minutes trying a dozen hypos to make it work, instead of just double checking my diagram. Then, with less than 4 minutes left, I thought it was too late to go back and re-diagram, so I just tried to eliminate answers I knew were wrong. Ended up going -5 on this game, lowering my score by what could have been 6 points.

The lesson, I think, is to check the diagram first if you are having major problems instead of just trying to power your way through it with hypos. And then, don't panic when you realize you have made a mistake. It's a good thing games was my last section too, because I was so upset after it that I wrote a cryptogram in huge letters at the bottom of my writing sample: "HATT LSAT MAGE LILKED MY CORES"

robotclubmember wrote:This is a good thread, I hope I don't seem rude in asking this, but can more of you give reasons for why you think you underperformed? What conditions were you prep-testing under?

Here are some no-no's of mine I am currently trying to get out of the habit of, let me know if any of you do these things are your own no-no's that you think weakened your performance.

-I will take the sections in segments because I like to study one thing on a certain day. Then I add up the scores once I've completed all of the sections of a particular test, even though I didn't take it all in one sitting.-I will take the test with my iPod on.-I will sometimes give myself an extra minute or two if I'm close to finishing instead of just guessing to fill in any remaining questions when time is almost up...-Not counting a misbubbled answer if the answer I meant to put was right.

Those are some examples. I know they're bad habits, but I'm just being honest, in that I will do all of those things, even though I know I shouldn't. I want to know if anyone here feels that there were things they did in their prepping that gave them unrealistically high hopes, or if it was some kind of fluke, got sick, hungover, what. Anyone willing to share personal experiences as to why they think they underperformed? We're all anonymous here, no harm.

My issue was reading comprehension. It was my first section, I was not mentally ready to begin and did not monitor when the test begin therefore being completely lost for time. I only got through the first three sections, the last of course was one that had 8 questions that I had to free guess on and of course not one them was correct. Therefore, I was screwed.

niederbomb wrote:Apparently, I can still get into UBC with my current score, it has the perfect dual degree with HKU that I want, and I wanted an excuse to move from the U.S. to Canada anyway. I hate tea parties and homophobes.

Hopefully, I'll do a lot better next time now that I can be more relaxed.

Man, the 11/01/10 version of you just got some reinforcement for your decision...

Been lurking these boards for quite some time. I never saw any reason to post anything of significance until I saw this thread. I studied for this past LSAT from May-October 8th, but more fervently and diligently the last 3 weeks. I was PT-ing in the mid to upper 160's for most of this time and was shocked to see that sinister email pop up on my phone last Friday that blatantly said 151 (luckily I was at a Halloween party and was sufficiently intoxicated enough to handle the blow). I'm still putting the pieces together trying to figure out where I went wrong. What's strange is that I left that test center feeling quite optimistic and confident that I had done well. I believe my approach to studying was ineffective, particularly because I never established a strict study plan where I dedicated a set amount of time to working on certain sections of PTs. Also, I regret not purchasing the newer PTs. I guess I took for granted all of the hearsay on TLS that there is some discrepancy between older and newer PTs. Finally, I realized how stupid it was for me to study 8 hours a day during the week leading up to the October LSAT. I guess I just psyched myself out and thought extensive last minute preparation would somehow get me into the 170's. After this week of tests I'm rededicating myself to studying for the December LSAT.